The Kentucky Wedding Week Bash!

WOW!

A weekend of whirlwind, wonderful activities. More on Churchill Downs, the Cathedral wedding and reception of Katie and Nico Romano, and a tour of Maker's Mark.

Please check out some gorgeous wedding pictures here: http://www.nicoandkatie.com/

Salmon fillet stuffed with lobster

May 16th. The wedding countdown including today is: 8 days.

Last night's dinner...

I love wild salmon and bought a whole sockeye fillet and had the skin taken off.
I usually save the skin to cook for Otto, but forgot to ask for it. So I bought the dog fresh chopped beef and put it in a bowl of pasta. We ran out of dog food, but he doesn't seem to mind! His breakfast yesterday was 1 raw egg, 2 slices of wheat bread toasted very dark, and ½ cup of non-fat vanilla yogurt. The dog eats like a king!

Back to the fish.

Ingredients:

1& 1/2 lbs whole sockeye fillet, skinned
2 leeks sliced up to the green part, washed and drained
1/2 onion
1 garlic clove minced
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
1 tablespoon of olive oil
¼ cup of sweet cream butter
2 small cooked (boiled) lobster tails, sliced
a splash of white wine
a drizzle of balsamic vinegar—aged
salt, pepper to taste
paprika
hot pepper (only if desired--if you’re married to Felipe, this is a MUST!)


Directions:

In a huge heavy skillet that can fit the large fillet, pour in oil with butter and heat till the butter melts.

Add onions, garlic, and leeks, wilt, but do not brown.

Add the fish, which has been salted, peppered, and sprinkled with paprika.

Bring heat up high and cover.

When edges start to cook and turn lighter in color, uncover, lower heat. Bless the fish with the wine on the fish and a little on the sides. Then drizzle the vinegar only on the fish. The veggies should be golden now.

Swathe the fish with the sliced lobster, and the wilted leeks, onion, garlic and parsley. Cover again and finish the cooking on a medium heat. Uncover for the last 2-3 minutes.

Serves 4 generous portions. You may serve this with rice or couscous, and/or a side of sautéed spinach and garlic. Or a salad. I actually had made eggplant parmigiana--the young ones ate it, I saved it for lunch today.

If this doesn’t turn out to your liking or the way you want it, go to a restaurant and order it, pretending you invented this dish and never read this recipe on my blog.

Like writers, good cooks imitate, great cooks steal!

Baklava

Something sweet for bitter days...

BAKLAVA

1 pound phyllo
3/4 pound unsalted butter1
1/2 pounds chopped walnuts and pecans
5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 1/2 cups water3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons of honey
lemon slice
orange slice

13 x 9 inch pan

DIRECTIONS

Make syrup first: 3 1/2 cups water, 3 cups sugar, slice of lemon and orange. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. LET COOL COMPLETELY

Combine nuts, 5 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon.

Melt butterCut phyllo to fit panButter pan and each piece of phyllo up to 8 pieces

Spread approximately 1/3 of the nut mix on the next phyllo after the butter.

Continue with another 5 sheets of phyllo with just butter then another with butter and nut mixture and so on.

End with a few phyllo with just butter.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes then reduce heat to 300 and bake 1 hour or until dark golden brown.

Cut Baklava into triangular shapes.

Let stand a few minutes, then pour on cooled simple syrup (I add 3 tablespoons of honey) over the top.

YUM ENJOY!!

Master's List 2009 and Orechetti

We're set for the rest of 2009 for our Masters on:
www. screwiowa.com
Here's the great line-up:

May: Michael Hettich, poet
June: Preston Allen, novel
July: Lynne Barrett, fiction or nonfiction
August: Leonard Nash, short stories
September: Vicki Hendricks, (noir writer) short fiction or novel
October: Lauren Small, novel
November: Les Standiford, novel or nonfiction
December: Jim Brock, poet

And to cwelebrate this wonderful news, here's a recipe I made on Mother's Day

Orechetti con broccoli e cavolfiore
Litte ears (pasta) with broccoli and cauliflower

Ingredients 1 head of fresh broccoli
1 head of fresh cauliflower
5 garlic cloves
4 ounces of anchovies in oil
grated Parmigiano to taste
a splash of white wine

All to taste:
salt
hot pepper
black pepper--fresh coarse ground
garlic powder
paprika
a sprinkling of oregano

Cook the orechetti--a little longer than usual--8-10 minutes
In the water for the pasta you may cook the vegetables or you may cook them beforehand and save the water to cook the pasta.

In a huge heavy fry pan irrigate the bottom of the pan with olive oil, add hot pepper and garlic--when the garlic begins to brown--take off electric heat or turn off the gas heat and douse with white wine. Toss in the anchovies...cover quickly or risk getting splattered or burned or both. Then add: vegetables, add: oregano, salt, paprika.

When the pasta is cooked--do not drain it tight--then toss with the vegetables and add the cheese. Serve immediately. As a first dish, it can serve 8-10 people.

For a second dish, I made two pork fillets with onions, garlic, rosemary and white wine...small yellow potatoes.

My nephew Stefan--the only one in the family who takes after me for cooking--made rolled chicken breasts stuffed with sausage in a besciamella sauce. Scrumptious! He served these with a side of grilled asparagus and cauliflower risotto.

Go for it!

Notice to Women and to writers

Notice for women:

I received an e-mail this morning asking me to post a link to this summer's
Skidmore Conference:

http://www.iwwg.org/pdf/09SkidmoreBrochure.pdf and to

IWWG: www.iwwg.org

This is a wonderful conference, not just for women writers but for all women.

Personally I can say that I attended workshops given by these wonderful instructors:
Lynne Barrett, Susan Tiberghien, June Gould, and Alice Orr, and I came away from each conference I attended with a good amount of writing, several poem drafts and non-fiction and fiction pieces as well. I always found this conference worthwhile and Saratoga Springs, where Skidmore is located, is a delightful place to visit.


Notice for Writers:

The Florida Gulf Coast University's Sanibel Writing Conference will be held this year from Nov. 5th to the 8th and I'll be teaching a poetry workshop.

At the same conference my former professor/mentors Lynne Barrett and John Dufresne will be teaching fiction workshops, and Lauren Small will be giving a talk on starting your own press and self-publishing on Sunday, November 8th.

Sign up soon!

Flounder with leeks,capers and prosecco

My son Nico and his intended bride, Katie, are tasting different types of prosecco for the toast at their up-coming nuptials. So tonight when they opened a bottle of an Italian medium dry one, I irrigated the flounder with it. Here's how.

Ingredients:

2 lbs of flounder fillets
2 tablespoons of butter
1/4 glass of prosecco
1/2 cup of leeks cut, thin, washed and drained tight
tiny capers 4 tablespoons
1 tablespoon of seasoned breadcrumbs
salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, if desired

Directions:

In a large fry pan with high sides and a tight-fitting cover, add butter and leeks, add flounder fillet, add capers and seasonings, raise the heat from medium to high add prosecco and cover for about 4-5 minutes. Uncover and lower heat to medium for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle on breadcrumb and spoon the liquid onto the fish. It's done in another minute or so. Serve immediately.

Sun-dried tomatoes with parmiagiano under oil

Sun-drived tomatoes conserved under oil

For those of you who have vegetable gardens or access to cheap, fresh produce...this recipe is for you! Espeically if you love good cheese and tomatoes...

In Italy I used to can and dry my own tomatoes. I did not, however, have my own garden, though I did have access to cheap produce in the markets. Summertime in San Felice Circeo, about an hour and half south of Rome, where we used to summer, and also spend weekends thoughout every season--you could find every vegetable and fruit existing--almost.

To dry tomatoes...use plump, Roma or preferably San Marzano. Wash, dry and cut in half, salt and set on flat rush mats or woven basket trays. Turn every day...take them in at night to avoid humidity, and cover with white cotton kitchen towels. Keep them in hot, summer sun until l they are dried. Make sure that air circulates underneath as well as on top of them.

Once they are completely dried (2-3 weeks of constant, hot summer sun), then you may utilize them any way you want…for salads, pizza, pasta, risottos, you name it.

Here’s another way to make them super-duper delish and they’ll keep for at least a year—probably longer, but that will never happen in my house--they are tomato gobblers for sure. this is not a cheap dish , due to the Parmigiano and excellent olive oil you use...never stint in the kitchen, or don't bother wasting your time!

Here is the recipe for sun-dried tomatoes under oil with PARMIGIANO.


Ingredients: Please don't ask me quantities...

Sun-dried tomatoes
parmiagiano
white vinegar
garlic
parsley
hot pepper
and also black coarse ground pepper if desired
salt
olive oil ( d'oliva extra vergine, first cold press)

When the white vinegar boils add the tomatoes and boil for about 10 minutes.
Drain tight and let dry and rest for 24 hours

Prepare a chopped mix of parsley, garlic, salt, pepper and however much hot pepper you desire.

Slice the Parmigiano into thin slices to put in the middle of two slices of tomato, for example, sandwich style. (tomato-parmigiano-tomato)

In the bottom of a glass vase that closes hermetically, place olive oil and some of the chopped mix, a little more oil and begin to place the tomatoes in the vase, adding always some of the chopped mix and some olive oil until the vase is full and on top floats a good amount of olive oil.

Seal the vase and don't open it for one entire lunar cycle, that is a month

something to remember--O I sue the wide-mouth jars that have a fresh sealing rubber ring--remember to change the rings from season to season...and remember always to sterilize the jars, vase, what-have-you, with boiling water, and then make sure that they are completely dry before you begin the process.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.